Hang up and drive for the sake of two sisters you do not know

Stand on a corner and watch the passing cars. It doesn’t take long until you see the bright flash of a smartphone in a driver’s hand.

Zoom way out and look at the United States for a day. There are 204 million vehicles. Each driver spends about 40 minutes a day on the road. There will be about 660,000 of them distracted by their devices.

After a year, 391,000 people will be injured in distracted driving crashes. In 2015, 3,477 of those folks died.

Illinois State Police have been writing 581 warning tickets this year for distracted driving, about the same number of warnings as in 2014 when driving with a phone in your hand was banned. You are 23 times more likely to crash if texting.

Some people take a little while to learn, just like they did when the mandatory seat belt law was passed.

Think you don’t do it that often? Think you’re good at multitasking? Willing to bet your life on it?

How about willing to live with causing someone else’s death? How about the deaths of two sisters? How about explaining to their mom why you just had to take that call or text?

This story was originally published December 7, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Hang up and drive for the sake of two sisters you do not know."